The Alexander Hamilton Institute resides in a historic Federal-style mansion located at 21 West Park Row in the village square of Clinton, New York, about one mile from the Hamilton College campus and about twenty miles from Colgate University. Othniel Williams (1787-1832), a graduate of Yale University and a lawyer, purchased the site in 1824. He completed the brick part of the building in 1832, the year of his death.

The property passed to his son Othniel S. Williams (1814-1880), a graduate of Hamilton College and charter member of the Alpha Delta Phi literary society, founded in 1832. He became a lawyer, judge, and businessman. He was the Town of Kirkland’s first supervisor and served his alma mater as both trustee and treasurer, in the latter capacity for thirty years. In 1871, the College acknowledged his service and philanthropy by awarding him an honorary degree.

Extensive gardens once surrounded the property, and it remained within the Williams family for more than a century until it was sold to William H. Newton, a lawyer from Utica, in 1938. Subsequent owners transformed the property into the Alexander Hamilton Inn, well known over the years for its hospitality to the alumni of Hamilton College and Colgate University and their families.

For further information, please contact us at (315) 292-2267.

The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI)